Fire & Sword:
Scenario Preview, Part Two
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
November 2024

Panzer Grenadier: Fire & Sword is an enormous game, with 913 pieces and five maps. You won’t be using all of those at one time; instead, that huge selection lets us include many battles inside the game.

It’s also going to let us expand the game with a whole passel of expansions. We do that with all of our games, but not many of them have the breadth of Fire & Sword. It’s packed with tanks and troops and weaponry: German Army, Armed SS Militia, Royal Hungarian Army, German Navy ground units, Red Army of Workers and Peasants, and Soviet Guards. And five maps: they’re all new, numbered 50 through 54. Two river maps (one wide, one less wide), two unique gully maps, and one farmland/city map.

But most of all, the game has its own set of deeply researched, intense scenarios of the Axis/Soviet fighting around Budapest in late 1944 and early 1945. Let’s look at the second chapter.

See the rest of the preview here:

• Scenario Preview, Part One
• Scenario Preview, Part Three
• Scenario Preview, Part Four
• Scenario Preview, Part Five
• Scenario Preview, Part Six
• Scenario Preview, Part Seven

Chapter Two
Crack of Doom
For the people of Budapest, the war had been an abstraction up until this point. The authorities mobilized all manner of organizations to join in the fighting, or at least to construct fortifications: city police, officer cadets, Arrow Cross fascist scum, and even puppet dictator Ferenc Szálasi’s personal bodyguard battalion. But when the Soviets reached the village of Dunaharaszti, suddenly the war came home, as the sound of artillery fire could now be heard even in the center of the Hungarian capital.

Arrow Cross fascist scum march to the front alongside a Royal Tiger of 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion. Budapest, 1944.

The Soviet offensive aimed at breaking the Attila Line, the incomplete line of fortifications meant to protect the city from the onrushing 2nd Ukrainian Front. Key reinforcements still had not arrived, given Stalin’s desire to take Budapest immediately, and the Soviet mobile units had lost much of their fighting power through combat losses and simple wear. The assault would continue.

Scenario Six
Attila Line
3 November 1944
Dunaharaszti, Hungary
While the battle for Kecskemét raged, feverish defensive preparations began in the southern part of Pest, east of the river Danube. The Hungarian VI Corps with its subordinate police units, anti-aircraft gunners, engineers, paratroopers and 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division held positions along the river. That sector formed part of the Attila Line, a discontinuous system of strongpoints, anti-tank ditches, barbed wire, and entrenchments protecting Budapest. Zhdanov’s 4th Guards Mechanized Corps, having pressed its way close to Dunaharaszti, would now have to take the fortified village and open the door to Pest.

Conclusion
The reinforced 15th Guards Mechanized Brigade planned to strike the 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division’s lines from the east and northeast to try to cut off the garrison of Dunaharaszti from the remainder of Pest. When the Soviet brigade arrived at the jump-off point some two kilometers northwest of Alsónémedi, it came under strong fire from nearby hills. At 0500 the rifle battalions of the 15th Guards Mechanized Brigade and the 202nd Guards Rifle Regiment formed a battle line and advanced on Rákócziliget. They were met with murderous artillery fire, which pinned down the Soviet riflemen approximately 500 meters northwest of Hill 112. When several Soviet AFVs appeared on the road leading to Dunaharaszti, the first tank was knocked out by an 88mm anti-tank gun manned by a Hungarian crew, which also destroyed two armored halftracks.

The brigade resumed its attack, and at 0900 the Hungarians withdrew to positions 1.5 kilometers east of Dunaharaszti. There, they once again succeeded in holding up the Soviets with a powerful artillery bombardment including the guns of an armored train. At 1230 the 15th Guards Mechanized Brigade and the 202nd Guards Rifle Regiment (from the 68th Guards Rifle Division) launched yet another attack, but the defenders supported by self-propelled guns and Flak halted them once more to the east of Rákóczliget. On the southeastern perimeter of Rákoczliget, near the main road, three Nashorn tank destroyers of the German 661st Tank Destroyer Battalion’s 4th Company, supported by six artillery batteries, awaited them. Clearly, with the forces available to the 15th Guards, it was impossible to take the place by direct assault.

Meanwhile, the 13th Guards Mechanized Brigade and two companies of the198th Guards Rifle Regiment’s 3rd Battalion attacked at 0600 towards Soroksár, from the area of Püspökmajor (three kilometers to the north of Alsónémedi). They crossed the anti-tank ditch but the Hungarian paratroopers and the SS halted their further advance. The commander of the SS 17th Cavalry Regiment personally led his small reserve in a counterthrust to retake the anti-tank ditch. However, this and the following two attempts failed in the face of the well-organized Soviet fire plan, which was also supported by eight AFVs. At around 1330, the Germans crossing the anti-tank ditch towards the south were forced back beyond the ditch by a Soviet counterthrust. Finally, the SS militia succeeded with a fourth assault and retook the anti-tank ditch in the evening.

Notes
Hungarian paratroopers. You get to play with Hungarian paratroopers! How many wargames let you do that? Who cares? They’re right here in Fire & Sword, trying to stem a powerful Soviet armored attack.

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Scenario Seven
Gates of Budapest
3 November 1944
Pestszentimre, Hungary
The 4th Guards Mechanized Brigade continued its drive towards Budapest. Early in the morning, a recon engineer platoon of the corps’ 55th Guards Sapper Battalion reached the bridge over the Nagy Lecsapoló-árok stream, south of Gyál. That stream formed part of the anti-tank ditch of the Attila I line. The Soviets attacked the crossing and quickly secured the precious bridge; 10 Hungarian sentries were killed in the firefight and two machine guns were captured as well as 100 kilograms of explosives. Some 30 minutes later the forward detachment of the Soviet brigade arrived from the south and crossed the bridge. The bulk of the 2nd Guards Mechanized Brigade then advanced towards Pestszentimre and Vecsés, both towns quite close to Ferihegy airport.

The Soviets organized a task force under command of Major-General Vladimir Baskakov (2nd Guards Mechanized Corps’ deputy commander) with the reinforced 4th Guards Mechanized Brigade (with 1509th SP Artillery Regiment, I Battlion/524th Mortar Regiment, III Battalion/48th Guards Mortar Regiment and one platoon of 55th Guards Sapper Battalion attached) and 37th Guards Tank Brigade with the 30th
Guards Heavy Tank Regiment and its JS2 tanks. Baskakov’s shock group smashed through the left flank of the inexperienced SS Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 53 and then, divided into two combat teams, advanced simultaneously to the north and northwest. The left flank group reached Gyál and entered the settlement against weak opposition from the SS militia. Then the Soviet task force advanced farther north and reached the eastern perimeter of Pestszentimre, which actually became the deepest point of Soviet penetration during Malinovsky’s first offensive on Budapest.

Conclusion
Battle Group Gehrig, still assembling, managed to block the advance of the 4th Guards Mechanized Brigade and drove back the attackers about three kilometers to the southeast. Five Csaba armored cars from the Budapest police as well as a company from the police assault battalion also participated in this counterattack. During the fighting, the Hungarian police lost three armored cars. Elements of the Hungarian Group Billnitzer also fought under Major Bernhard Gehrig’s control with four Turán-75 tanks, together with a battalion of the German SS 1st Police Regiment and II Battalion/66th Panzer Grenadier Regiment with fire support provided by the II Battalion/13th Panzer Artillery Regiment. The panzer group advanced from the southern limits of Pestszentimre straight to the southeast but, after gaining some ground, it was stopped dead in its tracks in the area just north of Gyál.

In Soviet ranks, anxiety and something approaching panic broke out among the troops, most of whom were inexperienced recruits. Baskakov’s intervention allowed the Soviet corps artillery to bombard the area where the Germans were assembling. At the same time 37th Guards Tank Brigade, coupled with the Stalin tanks of the 30th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment, launched a counter-attack of their own. The German counterattack was eventually halted by Soviet tank and anti-aircraft fire poured into the right flank of the panzer division. The 4th Guards Mechanized Brigade started another attack at around 1830 in the southeastern part of Pestszentimre, where the front line was consolidated around midnight.

Notes
The Soviets are on the attack, at least nominally so, but so many of the SS militia forces are reinforcements that its more a story of an initial Soviet attack followed by a German one (with some Hungarian assistance). The militia aren’t all that good, nor are the Hungarians, but the Soviets are badly worn down by this point and not as capable as they might have been a few weeks back.

Scenario Eight
Brownshirts
3 November 1944
Ullö, Hungary
On the evening of 2 November, the forward detachment of the 6th Guards Mechanized Brigade (2nd Guards Mechanized Corps) resumed its drive on Budapest. Shortly after midnight, these units entered Üllö, a town located at about 20 kilometers southeast of Budapest, after a brief but violent battle. The fall of Üllö, an important road and railway junction, gave the Axis command an unpleasant surprise. However, the Soviets were not very strong, their troops were numerically weak with very little ammunition and fuel, and they had almost no food. Thus, they stopped to advance and settled there.

Conclusion
The attackers had support from very strong artillery and mortar fire. The Guards waited in their foxholes for the enemy to come closer. The leading German tank was hit, then another was set ablaze, but the rest kept rolling forward. Some of the panzers managed to reach the battalion’s positions and began to crush the trenches and the emplacements, smashing several machine guns, anti-tank rifles and guns. Then, they fired point-blank and succeeded in separating the Soviet infantry from their tanks. The defenders finally halted the advance in the northern part of the town. The first German attack was followed by another at 1530, and then yet another, but they were all beaten back. The 6th Guards Mechanized Brigade even counterattacked and succeeded in pushing back the enemy approximately one kilometer beyond the north-western outskirts of the town.

Notes
It’s a German attack spearheaded by the worst of the worst: the former SA men of the Feldhernnhalle Division (the Brownshirts, Hitler’s original street-fighting thugs) and the 8th SS Cavalry Division, which saw no combat before 1944, spending years slaughtering civilians in Russia, Poland, and Croatia. Even criminal scum have their day, and this is one for the Germans, with surprisingly good initiative and morale. They will be hard to stop.

Scenario Nine
The Offensive Falters
4 November 1944
Between Pestszentimre and Vecsés, Hungary.
The Soviet advance on Pest from the southeast formed a bulge in the defensive lines, dangerously exposing the Red Army divisions to counterattacks on their flanks. For that reason, 46th Army ordered the 2nd Guards Mechanized Corps holding the right flank to send out an armored force bypassing the town of Pestszentimre which it failed to occupy on the previous day, and driving straight towards the airport. Leaving a small detachment at the southeastern limits of Pestszentimre to protect their extended left flank, at 0700 the bulk of the task force (including the 37th Guards Tank Brigade) launched an attack towards Pestzentlörinc. The powerful thrust of about 30 tanks supported by the infantry of 4th Guards Mechanized Brigade ejected the German combat outposts and pushed forward.

Conclusion
The Soviet breakthrough towards Budapest failed to materialize. Shortly after the start of the attack, the Soviets were halted by stiff Axis resistance on both sides of Felsöhalom. Having checked Baskakov’s onslaught, by midday the defenders (a mix of Germans and Hungarians, mostly from the 13th Panzer Division and Group Billnitzer) counterattacked and recaptured the tactically important Hill 129 (just to the northeast of Pestszentimre). The fierce counterattack delivered a heavy blow to the Soviets. Up to 50 armored vehicles smashed into the battle lines of the 4th Guards Mechanized Brigade while Axis artillery pounded their positions.

Chaos broke out aa the casualties began to mount. Twenty out of 35 Soviet tanks were destroyed and an infantry battalion that accompanied them nearly wiped out.  The wounded included the brigade’s commander, his chief of staff, and the commanding officer of the 23rd Guards Tank Regiment. In Soviet ranks, anxiety and something approaching panic broke out among the troops, most of whom were inexperienced recruits. The entire brigade stood on the verge of a catastrophe when Baskakov intervened, ordering the corps artillery to bombard the German assembly areas. At the same time, 37th Guards Tank Brigade, along with the Stalin tanks of the 30th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment, returned to the endangered zone. Soviet tank and anti-aircraft fire poured into their right flank eventually halted the German attack.

Throughout the rest of the day fierce fighting continued in the bottleneck between Pestszentimre, Pestszentlörinc and Vecsés, but the Soviets gained no more ground. On the contrary, they were forced to switch over to the defensive for good. At around 1400, the 13th Panzer and Feldherrnhalle Divisions merged into a powerful armored fist. They attacked from the southern limits of Pestszentlörinc with the objective of repulsing the Soviets beyond the Nagy Lecsapoló-árok stream and trapping Baskakov’s task force in the bottleneck. The German attack was brought to a halt at Hill 120 (just east of Gyál). After so many attacks, counterattacks and fire exchanges, the entire land between Pestszentimre and Vecsés was covered with dead bodies and wrecked machines.
 
By the evening of 4 November, it was already clear to both the Stavka and OKH that Malinovsky’s attempt to capture Budapest had failed. At 2000, Stalin signed a “stop order” that was immediately sent to the 2nd Ukrainian Front’s headquarters.

Notes
The Germans once again have high morale, and this time they have plentiful tanks and artillery, plus air support. The Soviets are once again worn down, and only have a handful of Stalin tanks and slightly more T34/85’s with which to try to blunt the Nazi onslaught. This will be another tough one for the Red Army.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published an unknowable number of books, games and articles on historical subjects. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and three children; he misses his dog, Leopold.

Daily Content includes no AI-generated content or third-party ads. We work hard to keep it that way, and that’s a lot of work. You can help us keep things that way with your gift through this link right here.